The Third Estate Sunday Review focuses on politics and culture. We're an online magazine. We don't play nice and we don't kiss butt. In the words of Tuesday Weld: "I do not ever want to be a huge star. Do you think I want a success? I refused "Bonnie and Clyde" because I was nursing at the time but also because deep down I knew that it was going to be a huge success. The same was true of "Bob and Carol and Fred and Sue" or whatever it was called. It reeked of success."

Sunday, December 27, 2015

Boosters for the Obama administration claim that his Affordable Care
Act is a legacy that qualifies Obama for permanent residence in the
pantheon of progressive domestic policy presidents, like Franklin
Roosevelt and Lyndon Johnson. Black Agenda Report takes the opposite
position: that, in 2009, newly-elected President Obama set the cause of
universal health care back many years with his surprise endorsement of a
Republican health insurance plan, hatched in the bowels of the Heritage
Foundation in the 1980s and championed by GOP presidential candidate
Bob Dole in 1996 and Massachusetts Republican Governor Mitt Romney
shortly thereafter. Obama’s bill was written by the health insurance and
pharmaceutical corporations, and brutally imposed on the Left wing of
the Democratic Party, whose members were threatened with loss of party
campaign support if they resisted.Cleveland Congressman Dennis Kucinich was the last holdout for the
so-called Public Option, a scaled down alternative to Obama’s
corporate-based scheme that finally disappeared altogether – as did Rep.
Kucinich’s seat in Congress, which was redistricted out from under him.

The White House justified its abandonment of Single Payer health
care, claiming compromise was necessary in order to get Republican
votes. But the Democrats controlled both Houses of Congress, and
Obamacare passed without a single Republican vote.

Truth is, the nonprofit model is anti-democratic, top-down and
ideally suited to what Adolph Reed calls the broker type of leader, the
unaccountable spokesperson purporting to be the mouthpiece of some
united mass constituency with no real power over its alleged leader.
Energetic and charismatic leaders of nonprofit organizations often
sustain impressive mobilizations, at least over a short time, but they
inevitably fall short on educating their members out of dependence on
self-selected or funder-selected leaders (if they define members at all)
and on expanding the base of their leadership. Nonprofit formations can
make impressive use of Facebook and social media too, but these are
mobilizing tools allowing you to communicate with other activists, those
who already agree with you, not organizing tools one can use to
identify potential leaders and win over audiences who don't already
agree.Dependence on the nonprofit model is all that Democratic party
honchos desire from the left. They just need an election day
mobilization. But if the vision of our movement extends to taking power,
we have to train a broad base of people to wield power over their own
organizations, and to contend for power over their lives, their
economies, their communities with those who have that power now.

In the fifty-first state of the United States -- Iraq, the war never ends.

And the Iraqi people never have a say in their own country.

Which is why despite protests by citizens and despite officials -- including Iraq's US-installed prime minister Haider al-Abadi -- insisting Turkish troops have to leave Iraq, the White House does and says nothing.

But when called on the hypocrisy, as they were December 10th, they go into full-bitch mode:

As shameful as he was, equally shameful was REUTERS whose 'reporter' rushed in to change the subject and rescue the State Dept.

Let's jump in to where Chickakryan attempts to get answers to her questions.

QUESTION: I have one more question on Turkey, please.MR KIRBY: Okay, go ahead.
QUESTION: Thank you. Well, you were saying that it’s up to
Turkey and Iraq to figure out the situation with the uninvited Turkish
troops. But the U.S. does take upon itself to invite forces from other
countries into Iraq and in Syria. Ash Carter was telling Congress
yesterday that he personally reached out to 40 countries asking them to
commit special ops for the fight and other support. The Iraqi parliament
is concerned that their country is becoming this ground where different
countries do what they want. The Iraqi parliament’s Security and
Defense Committee is calling for the review or cancelation of the U.S.
security agreement with Iraq. What does the U.S. do to address their
concerns?
MR KIRBY: Address whose concerns?
QUESTION: The Iraqi parliament’s Security and Defense Committee that is
now calling to review or cancel the agreement with the U.S.
MR KIRBY: I haven’t seen those reports, ma’am. We continue to
work with the Iraqi Government. The troops that Secretary Carter
referred to, that decision was done in full coordination and cooperation
with the Iraqi Government. If you’re trying to suggest that somehow
U.S. military assistance against ISIL is untoward or being done without
full coordination with the Iraq Government, it’s just a completely
baseless charge. And I don’t think it’s worth having any more
discussions about it.
QUESTION: But you’re saying – are you saying that you’re not
aware of the Iraqi parliament’s – this Security and Defense Committee’s
initiative that they want to --
MR KIRBY: I haven’t seen that, no. I haven’t seen that.
QUESTION: Okay. What – the situation where the U.S. invites forces --
MR KIRBY: I’m going to give you just one more, honestly, and then that’s it. Okay?
QUESTION: Sure.
MR KIRBY: Go ahead.
QUESTION: The situation where the U.S. invites forces to Iraq
and the U.S. is leading this coalition, but when something goes wrong,
the U.S. says it’s none of our business, like with the Turkish troops.
Let – you have to figure it out between yourselves. Should it be of no
concern to Iraq?
MR KIRBY: Should what be of no concern? I love these questions
that are 10 minutes long then I’m supposed to get the grain of it out
of there. Should what be of no concern?
QUESTION: The fact that when something – you have this
cooperation, you have this agreement, but when something goes wrong, the
U.S. says it’s none of our business, like with what’s happening with
the Turkish troops.
MR KIRBY: Oh, come on. Again, another ridiculous question. When have we ever said it’s none of our business?
QUESTION: You are saying that about the Turkish troops.
MR KIRBY: What I’m – no. No, I’m not. I’m saying that – I’ll
say it again, okay? We want this to be worked out bilaterally between
Turkey and Iraq. And the way you’re trying to twist all of this around
to make it look like we’re doing something nefarious or that we’re –
we’ve got some sort of inappropriate relationships here, I mean, it’s
just so silly. And I can’t believe --
QUESTION: Well, am I really twisting it? You – have you --
MR KIRBY: I can’t believe, honestly, that you aren’t
embarrassed to ask these questions. You have to be looking at these
questions and almost laughing to yourself, don’t you? I mean, they’re
absolutely crazy.
QUESTION: So --
MR KIRBY: So we are working very closely with the Abadi
government, right. We are working inside a coalition of 65 nations – 65
nations that have signed up to go after ISIL in Iraq and in Syria – let
me finish. You’ve had your moment. Sixty-five nations. And what we have
said from the very beginning – I said it when I was at the Pentagon in
uniform – is that we want any action against ISIL inside Iraq,
specifically, to be done with full cooperation and coordination with the
Iraqi Government and with their sovereign permission. That hasn’t
changed one whit. Now there’s this dispute between Turkey and Iraq over
the presence of a small number of troops, okay?
QUESTION: Should --
MR KIRBY: And we – I’ve said – I said it over the last several
days and I’ll say it again: Nothing’s changed about our position about
the sovereign nature of Iraq and the fact that troops operating against
ISIL inside Iraq needs to be done with the Iraqi Government’s
permission. And we’ve stated that publicly, we’ve stated that privately,
to every member of the coalition. Nothing’s changed about that.
QUESTION: Sir --
MR KIRBY: And we want Turkey and Iraq to work this out, and
they are. You are trying to find a way to make this some big divisive
issue, and even the Turks and the Iraqis know that it’s not and they’re
working their way through it. So let’s let them work their way through
it and let the rest of everybody keep focusing on ISIL, which is what we
should do, and which, by the way, the Russians aren’t doing.
QUESTION: If I may – if I may – if I may --
QUESTION: Is it – I’m sorry, should I not – should I not ask --
QUESTION: If I may – if I may --
QUESTION: Should I not be asking what the U.S. assessment of Turkey’s actions is?
MR KIRBY: You – ma’am – I’m going take this one, Arshad, then I’m going to come to you. You can – you can --
QUESTION: Should I not be asking that question? Exactly which question should I be embarrassed about, sir?
MR KIRBY: You can ask me whatever you want. I’m just stunned
that you’re not embarrassed by some of the questions you ask. And I
notice that --
QUESTION: Exactly which question?
MR KIRBY: I notice that RT very rarely asks any tough
questions of their own government. So you can ask whatever you want.
That’s the beauty of this setting, right, here at the State Department.
You can come in here and ask me whatever you want, and you can be as –
just as challenging as you want to be and accusatory in your questions –
some of those today, absolutely ridiculous. You can do that here in the
United States, but I don’t see you --
QUESTION: Which question was ridiculous, sir?
MR KIRBY: I don’t see you asking those same questions of your own government about ISIL in Syria.
QUESTION: Which of my questions was ridiculous?
MR KIRBY: And I would love to see those questions get asked.Arshad.QUESTION: I’d like to switch to just saying one quick word about Barry Schweid.

All this time later, US President Barack Obama still can't support Iraq's legal right to evict foreign troops.

Thursday, a body weighed in with a ruling. SPUTNIK reported, "Turkey must withdraw immediately all its troops from
Iraq without any preconditions, a statement unanimously adopted by
members of the Arab League said Thursday." AFP noted:

The
Turkish deployment "is an assault on Iraqi sovereignty and a threat to
Arab national security," they said in an Arab League statement after
meeting at the pan-Arab bloc's Cairo headquarters.Arab League
deputy chief Ahmed Ben Heli read out the statement at a press
conference, in which he added that the Turkish troops "increased tumult
in the region."

This dualism was on display in the last few days just as it was throughout the year.

NBC re-aired DOLLY PARTON'S COAT OF MANY COLORS on Christmas. This after the original broadcast this month already set records, becoming the highest rated TV movie since 2012. The story was already a winner, a basis for Dolly Parton's "Coat Of Many Colors" -- a classic since it first charted in 1970.

And Parton produced the film with care and Ricky Schroder was a stand out as her father but if his strong performance got little water cooler traction, that's probably because the entire cast was a revelation including Jennifer Nettles as Dolly's mother.

But what made the telefilm work so well was the script by Pamela K. Long which didn't try to pretty up moments, allowed Alyvia Alyn Lind (playing the young Dolly) to express anger, resentment and more -- at her parents, at God, you name it.

('You haven't commented on Lind!' Our policy is not to comment positively or negatively on child actors.)In a condescending review at VARIETY, Brian Lowery offered his usual attack on women -- something VARIETY has long allowed him to do and one of the reasons that VARIETY is beaten these days in coverage and columns by THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER and DEADLINE.

No, Dolly's film was not like a Hallmark movie. It was messy and it was real.

In its own way, it stands alongside Jane Fonda's THE DOLLMAKER and Ann-Margaret's WHO WILL LOVE MY CHILDREN? -- two other rare telefilms that acknowledged poverty in the United States.

And just as the corporate press ignores Senator Bernie Sanders' comments on poverty and the working class -- except to insist with disdain that there's no money in the national budget to address American poverty -- uppity little assholes like Brian Lowery sneer at any fictional representation poverty manages to have on the small screen.

Bernie Sanders is running for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination and he appeared on NBC's MEET THE PRESS today and squared off against Hillary Clinton's devoted fan Andrea Mitchell.

Think that's harsh? Listening to her whine repeatedly to guests about Hillary and Hillary's chances was bad enough. But why the need to show SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE clips . . . of Larry David sending up Bernie?

There were none mocking Hillary. This despite Kate McKinnon becoming a household name largely as a result of her SNL parody of Hillary.

Worst of all? 'Journalist' Andrea commenting, "Which is Bernie Sanders and which is Larry David? I can't get them straight."

Saving Hillary meant also doing a segment on how Hillary was right and Donald Trump was wrong about Russia, Putin, a no-fly zone over Syria -- and having both guests be . . . former members of the Obama administration former members and forever lackeys.

When Andrea did (briefly) remember she was supposed to be a journalist, she noted former US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel telling FOREIGN POLICY this month that the White House tried to destroy him and that Barack destroyed his credibility in 2013 when he refused to stand up when Syria crossed the red-line that Barack had drawn.

Did, Andrea asked, Barack destroy his credibility?

Wendy Sherman (involved in that 2013 decision) refused to answer. She talked, she yacked, she steered the conversation away from Hagel's observation. She refused to answer.

And 'journalist' Andrea let her get away with it.

Worse was when Bernie appeared for a segment.

Andrea puffed up her chest and used her self-important tone to hector him about how, since the Islamic State attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, his polling had fallen as evidenced by CNN, "While these [jobs, the economy, poverty] are really important issues, what recent polling shows is
that Americans, since Paris, since San Bernardino, are more concerned
about terrorism, the threat of terrorism, than they are about the
economy."

Bernie corrected her.

That was the spin on the CNN poll, not the reality. Bernie schooled her on the reality -- a double digit increase in support for him since the first debate according to the CNN poll:

Senator Bernie Sanders: While these are really important issues, what recent polling shows is
that Americans, since Paris, since San Bernardino, are more concerned
about terrorism, the threat of terrorism, than they are about the
economy.

Andrea just brushed it aside.

Her whoring for Hillary is appalling.

We say that because a friend who's covering Hillary's campaign continues to tell us everything she's seen about how Andrea hectors other women, tries to influence the coverage, makes gender appeals, etc. instead of merely covering the events. Our friend jokes that if she write a book about the campaign, she'll zoom in on Andrea and call it BITCH ON THE BUS -- giving a send up to Timothy Crouse's 1973 campaign classic.

(Regardless of what she might title it, we are urging her to write it. This book could be as important to political reporting as Nora Ephron's essay "Miami" was.)

Let's drop back to that 'foreign policy' segment.

The laughable Wendy Sherman and Mike McFaul were supposed to be discussing foreign policy -- the Islamic State specifically. Wendy's a war hawk. So is Mike

Mike went on about how the US government was addressing the Islamic State, the thousands of bombs dropped -- on Iraq and Syria -- and the billions spent on these bombings.

Then he invoked the White House buzzword "multi-pronged approach."

He insisted that one was needed.

And here he deserves a bit of credit.

We've foolishly believed that this multi-pronged approach would include diplomacy.

After all, in June, 2014, Barack declared publicly that only a political solution could end the crises in Iraq.

And yet the administration has ignored the politics and diplomacy repeatedly.

US House Rep Loretta Sanchez: You said that we are arming the Kurds.
The last time I spoke to [KRG President Mahmoud] Barzani, he suggested
that they needed heavier duty weapons versus light arms. And so my
question -- my first question -- would be what are we arming them with?
I mean, is this really for the battlefield that they find? Secondly,
I'd like you to address this whole issue with respect to the Iraqi army
and the inability for us to get integrated -- or for Iraq's government
to get it integrated. I remember back in the -- under the Constitution
and the whole issue of, for example, having a vote on the Kurd area
being an independent entity, for example. That was something that I
continued to ask our military leaders at the time who were overseeing
Iraq and the reality was they kept saying, 'That's the hardest part,
that's the hardest part, we're going to get to it.' And we never got to
it before we were gone. Now we see the fruits of that in that we are
still not able to have a military that -- or police force -- that's very
integrated. So what do we do about that? Uhm, so we've been taking
back territory in Iraq and one of the issues that we had is it always
takes additional -- I mean, we need to leave troops there or we need to
leave somebody there in order to hold onto it. Otherwise, we end up
losing that territory. So what is our strategy to do that? And the
recruitment effort. I would like -- and I'm sure that it would be not
within the public realm, but I would love to get briefed on the cyber
issues and how we're countering the recruitment with respect to ISIS,
ISIL, whatever you want to call them. these days, from a global
perspective. But in particular are we doing anything that you can talk
about in this setting with respect to the recruiting effort in the
region itself? And lastly, DIME -- Diplomacy, Intelligence, Military,
Economic. You know, it's not just military that we need here. So,
Secretary, if you could speak a little to what are some of the other
efforts we're doing to counter-act what is really something we need to
eliminate which is ISIS. Thank you.

Secretary Ash Carter: Uh-uh, Congresswoman Sanchez, I'll touch two of
the points and ask-ask the Chairman especially with respect --
with-with respect to arming the Kurds -- if you don't mind, Mr. Chairman
-- and-and-and generally the Iraqi security forces. Uhm, you talk
about DIME? Absolutely, it is essential that we recognize even though
we -- uhh-uhh, I believe this is absolutely true -- are the center of
the campaign because there must be a military defeat of ISIL.

Lip service from Ash Carter can mislead.

Thankfully, Mike McFaul cleared it up today.

Mike McFaul: The solution is a multi-pronged long-term strategy, as Wendy just
alluded to. And it's not going to be easy. It's not going to be a
slogan. I do think the administration has undersold its policy, as the
president hinted at a couple weeks ago. I just want to remind your
viewers, when I hear candidates say, "The United States is doing nothing
to fight ISIS," there have actually been 9,000 attacks against ISIS in
Iraq and Syria. We've spent over $5 billion already in that theater
alone. But nobody believes that there's going to be a
victory over ISIS through an air campaign. And that's why we need to
have the multi-pronged strategy, including our Muslim allies.

The multi-pronged strategy that's needed?

"We need Muslim soldiers" on the ground.

He insisted, "Because at the end of the day it's going to be Muslim soldiers in Iraq
and in Syria that are going to ultimately defeat ISIS. It won't be the
United States alone."

Soldiers from other countries in the region.

That's the 'multi-pronged' 'strategy.'

This administration's drowning in a shallow, wading pool of non-ideas.

But don't expect Andrea to ever point that out, not when she's busy electing Hillary.

And then there's Bernie.

And then there's that uncompromising, enterprising, anything but tranqulizing, Right on Bernie!!!!

(Nod to Donny Hathaway's theme to MAUDE.)

Yes, and then there's Bernie.

Bernie wanted to talk poverty.

With millionaire journalist Andrea Mitchell.

With the millionaire journalist married to millionaire Alan Greenspan -- the former Chair of the Federal Reserve.

If Bernie knew what he was doing, when Andrea tried to brush the subject off with her 'these are important subjects, but . . .,' he would have responded with, "No, these are important subjects to the millions of Americans who do not have your wealth, Andrea."

He would have put her on the spot and she would have had to have acknowledged poverty or come off like the out of touch elite that she truly is.

As she continued to harp on the Islamic State -- better she harp on that than the 'data breach' which, for the record, she also brought up (no one cares about that story) -- Bernie missed his golden opportunity.

Where he succeeds is when he paints himself as the defender of the basic American.

We don't think he's 'weak' on defense.

But we do think he argues it poorly.

He's calling for, among other things, Saudis to step up in the fight against the Islamic State.

Andrea's only question there was what made him think he could make that happen?

He really should have responded, "If I didn't think I could do it, I wouldn't be running."

Instead, he let her set the terms of the debate.

He answer included, "We have to destroy ISIS. But I will not stop fighting for working
families and the middle class, will not stop taking on a billionaire
class whose greed, in many ways, is destroying our economy. "

That's an answer.

A weak one.

The really strong answer is: Billions have been poured into Iraq -- billions of US tax dollars -- and billions continue to be poured into Iraq.

There will be no economic progress domestically until the United States stop spending billions overseas on war.

That's a message US voters could relate to -- as they watch their bridges crumble, as they see the 'universal' healthcare become a universal nightmare (good plans trashed, bad plans offered on the public exchange, fines rising), as they watch the bulk of their tax dollars continue to fund war, war and more war.

Bernie fumbled in other ways -- his comment about Jane Sanders and his response to Donald Trump were both poorly worded -- we understood what he meant but he made his points poorly.

And we could focus on that or on the hideous teeth of Andrea's other guest Debbie Wasserman Schultz's hideous teeth -- doesn't Congress have a dental plan?

But if we did that, we wouldn't be MEET THE PRESS, we'd be THIS WEEK.

As bad as MEET THE PRESS was today, Andrea can take comfort in the fact that it wasn't ABC's THIS WEEK where Jonathan Karl handled hosting duties.

He apparently did his entire prep while standing at the urinal before the show.

That would certainly explain why viewers felt pissed on.

Karl presided over the "powerhouse roundtable" -- a rather weak assembly of a neocon, a corporatist rightest, a corporatist leftist and a corporate journalist.

This dweeb trust was used to comment on events of the week?

No, of course not.

They were too busy offering their predictions of who would win Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina.

Then they were galloping off to November 2016's general election.

This served no one.

This was utter crap.

A complete waste of time.

Andrea didn't go deep into any issue but she did cover issues.

ABC was more concerned with broadcasting political coverage via The Psychic Network.

More and more, the fakery wins out on network television. That's the real lesson of 2016. The subtext, of course, is that when reality does make a rare appearance -- Dolly's telefilm or Bernie talking about poverty -- it's a revelation which speaks to many.

As we noted in 2013, Amy Goodman once only had to worry about criticism from The 9/11 Truth Movement.

And while they did pioneering work, many other voices have joined the chorus.

Her use of CIA contract labor Juan Cole as a respected guest, her promotion of the war on Libya, her one-sided 'reporting' on Syria (pro-war propaganda) and her never ending slavish devotion to corporatist Barack Obama go a long, long way towards explaining how the one-time Queen of 'Independent' Media has become the Whore of Babel and Gas Baggery.

As she continues to fleece the Pacifica Radio Foundation out of millions, this 1% is seen as a whore no different than your basic corporate media whore -- and that's because there is no difference.

With a Democrat in the White House, Amy Goodman's entire purpose became serving the government.

Michael Ratner was a close runner-up for the title.

But the leader of the Center for Constitutional Rights momentarily breaks his senility on LAW AND DISORDER RADIO to (briefly) rail against Barack Obama for The Drone War, the war on whistle-blowers and assorted other crimes.

He quickly forgets these problems and rushes back to cheer Barack on, but those moments of rational and ethical thought are far more than anything Goody Whore ever offers.

The year wound down with her hypocritically whining that the corporate media was unfair and favoring Hillary Clinton with coverage while ignoring Bernie Sanders -- an argument that might have carried some weight were it not for her ignoring Martin O'Malley to devote one segment after another to Bernie Sanders.

Though it came out in July of 2006, The Ballet's "I Hate The War" stands as the song of 2015.

Nine years after the song was released -- and with the never-ending Iraq War still going -- verses like the following ring especially true:

What I'm trying to say isIt's time To get in the wayIt's crazy That this thing is still going onI can't believeThis thing's still going on And it goesNa na na na na na I hate the warNa na na na na na I hate the warNa na na na na naI hate the war

-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)

Veteran suicide and 9/11 first responders legislation book-end year of action for IAVA

PRESS CONTACT

Gretchen Andersen

Press Secretary

Tel: 212-982-9699

press@iava.org

NEW YORK (December 30, 2015) — As 2015 comes to a
close, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), the largest
nonprofit, nonpartisan organization representing post-9/11 veterans and
their families, celebrates a year of historic victories and impact at
the local and national level. In 2015, IAVA’s signature Rapid Response Referral Program (RRRP)
surpassed 5,800 veterans and families served since the one-on-one
support program was established in 2012. IAVA also continued to be the
leading policy advocate for veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
passing the federal Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans
(SAV) Act and local legislation creating a permanent Department of
Veteran Services in New York City, and concluding with the passage of
the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act.

“This year has been a landmark year filled with tremendous successes
on many of the most difficult issues facing veterans today. From veteran
suicide and mental health to women veterans and VA reform, IAVA did not
flinch when tackling the hardest issues,” said Paul Rieckhoff, Founder
and CEO of IAVA. “We may not be the largest organization in terms of
revenue, but what we are is the most determined, focused and skilled
organization representing post-9/11 veterans and their families. The
result of our efforts was real action and tangible change in moving the
needle on these pressing concerns and, along the way, highlighting the
strength and potential of America’s new greatest generation.”

Major victories for IAVA in 2015 include:

A year long campaign to make veteran suicide and mental health care
top priorities for Congress, the president and America, culminating in a
White House bill signing of the Clay Hunt SAV Act
in February. The act, named for Marine veteran Clay Hunt who died by
suicide in March 2011 at the age of 28, aims to reduce military and
veteran suicides and improve access to quality mental health care.

Unveiling the The Wait We Carry 2.0
website in March at TED2015. This data visualization tool captures the
experiences of veterans using VA health care and those who have
submitted disability claims for combat-related injuries.

In the fall, IAVA joined College Factual to re-launch the NewGIBIll.org
website, an innovative, free online calculation tool designed to help
veterans determine their best, most affordable education options. To
date, more than one million veterans have utilized IAVA’s GI Bill
calculator to make informed decisions about their education goals.

IAVA’s 2015 Policy Agenda
was delivered to members of Congress and the president in October,
providing an 11-point comprehensive blueprint for how all branches of
government, the private sector, nonprofits and communities can support
veterans. As the 2016 presidential race got underway, IAVA used the
agenda to push all candidates to provide concrete plans for supporting
veterans and their families.

During Veterans Week, post-9/11 veterans, families and supporters of
IAVA participated in a record 145 “VetTogethers” across the nation. In
New York City, more than 800 IAVA members marched in the New York City
Veterans Day parade. IAVA’s Ninth Annual Heroes Gala capped of a historic Veterans Week with special guest Stephen Colbert and host Willie Geist.

For nearly two years New York City-area IAVA members and peer
organizations battled with Mayor de Blasio to take action to support the
city’s 230,000 veterans and their families. On December 10, IAVA
celebrated the long-sought victory to establish a city Department of Veteran Services in New York City.

Finally, on December 18, the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Reauthorization Act
permanently extended the World Trade Center Health Program and
re-authorized the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund in the final
act of Congress for the year. The reauthorization of the act will impact
many veterans who were called to serve in the aftermath of 9/11 and
later went to war in Iraq and/or Afghanistan. The legislation was pushed
through in part thanks to the more than 4,100 letters sent to Congress
by IAVA members and supporters.

Throughout the year, IAVA also:

Hosted more than 660 “VetTogethers” across the country, reaching over 7,000 veterans and their families.

The #GoSilent campaign allowed for a shared, nationwide experience
on Memorial Day. An unprecedented 9,182 individuals pledged to
simultaneously participate in a one minute of silence across the nation.
The campaign went viral, and mirrored the growth of IAVA’s social media
presence. During the year, Facebook “likes” increased by 23,314,
Twitter by 7,042 new followers and Instagram gained 4,592 new followers.

In December, IAVA received a Force for Change grant from
Salesforce.org, the philanthropic arm of Salesforce. These funds will be
used to help build a 21st century virtual veterans hall supported
through the expansion of IAVA’s innovative “myIAVA” platform.

IAVA was the only veteran service organization to be selected as a
My LA2050 Grants Challenge recipient. These funds will provide at least
180 of LA’s 320,000 veterans and their families with support as they
transition to civilian life through referrals to critical resources and
support systems.

In the year ahead, IAVA will continue to fight for veterans through
targeted action. In January, IAVA will turn to members of Congress to
take bipartisan action to support the 280,000 women who have served in
Iraq and Afghanistan by removing barriers to care and benefits at the VA
and reforming the culture of the military to accept women fully in
their ranks.

Note to media: Email press@iava.org or call 212-982-9699 to speak with IAVA CEO and Founder Paul Rieckhoff or IAVA leadership.Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (www.IAVA.org) is the
leading post-9/11 veteran empowerment organization (VEO) with the most
diverse and rapidly growing membership in America. Celebrating its 10th
year anniversary, IAVA has repeatedly received the highest rating -
four-stars - from Charity Navigator, America's largest charity
evaluator.

As
a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Baldwin secured
several bipartisan provisions for Wisconsin veterans and their families

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tammy
Baldwin released the following statement after President Obama signed
into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016, which included
several provisions
Senator Baldwin championed on behalf of Wisconsin veterans and their
families:

“I
was proud to usher in this legislation which rolls back devastating
budget cuts to veterans and includes many reforms that I have fought for
and support. As a member of the Senate Appropriations
Committee, I fought to include provisions in this legislation that
would improve transparency of VA Office of Inspector General reports,
strengthen protections for whistleblowers, and provide stronger
oversight of the VA’s prescribing practices. These are
significant reforms that take a serious step in the right direction to
ensure we address underlying challenges at the VA.”

As a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Baldwin championed the following provisions in the new law:

Opioid Drug Abuse Prevention Funding

Senator Baldwin is a strong supporter of
increased funding for opioid and prescription drug abuse prevention,
treatment and research programs. As a member of the Senate
Appropriations Committee,Senator Baldwin led a call to strengthen federal investments
to combat the growing prescription drug and opioid abuse epidemic in America, including support for the Centers for DiseaseControl and Prevention’s (CDC) Prevention for States program.
As a result of Senator Baldwin’s advocacy, the Consolidated
Appropriations Act of 2016 includes robust funding for opioid abuse
prevention efforts at the CDC and the Substance Abuse &
Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), including $70 million
for CDC’s prescription drug abuse overdose prevention and monitoring
activities. This investment allows CDC to strengthen and expand its
prevention program to all 50 states and to continue
to develop safe opioid prescribing guidelines.

VA Inspector General Transparency Improvements

Senator Baldwin, along with
Appropriations Subcommittee on MilCon/VA Chairman Mark Kirk (R-IL),
authored a provision regarding increasing transparency at the VA Office
of Inspector General
(OIG). Based on an amendment Senator Baldwin included in S.579, the
Inspector General Empowerment Act, the joint Baldwin-Kirk amendment
would amend current law to ensure that when the VA OIG completes a
report, it is promptly shared with the VA Secretary,
Congress, and the public. This bill language would help address
failures of transparency and agency oversight by requiring
recommendations made by the VA OIG during investigations, audits or
other reports to be sent directly to the VA Secretary. In addition,
these recommendations would be available to the public and submitted
directly to relevant Congressional oversight committees. Lastly, if the
Inspector General initiated an investigation based on information
provided by an individual, the recommendations would
also be shared with that individual.

Drug Diversion at Veterans Health Administration Facilities

As a member of the Senate Appropriations
Committee, Senator Baldwin successfully worked to include language in
the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2016 that urges the Drug
Enforcement Administration
(DEA) to maintain open communication with the Veterans Health
Administration (VHA) and treat investigations of drug diversion in VHA
facilities as a priority. DEA shall report to the Committee within 90
days after the enactment of this act on its drug diversion
investigations involving VHA facilities and to report on the status of
investigations on a quarterly basis thereafter.

The initial report shall include: the
number of ongoing DEA drug diversion investigations into VHA facilities,
the number of DEA drug diversion investigations into VHA facilities
concluded
in the prior year, an analysis of trends in DEA and VHA drug diversion
investigations over the past 10 years, the number of investigations that
resulted in indictments, a review of factors that may be leading to
drug diversion including VHA prescription drug
prescribing practices, and recommendations or best practices to prevent
drug diversion from VHA facilities.

Whistleblower Enhancement for VA Medical Professionals

Closes an existing legal loophole that
harms VA medical professionals who have experienced whistleblower
retaliation in the form of a negative personnel evaluation. Currently,
the Office of
Special Counsel (OSC) cannot investigate these types of retaliation
because VA medical professional personnel evaluations are governed by
Title 38; while OSC’s relevant investigatory power is limited to
personnel evaluations governed by Title 5. Senator Baldwin’s
provision would address this inconsistency in the law by including
personnel reviews governed by Title 38 within the scope of potential
retaliatory personnel actions that OSC can investigate.

Update of Joint VA and DoD Clinical Practice Guidelines

To help address the prescription drug
abuse and overdose epidemic, Senator Baldwin included a provision
requiring the VA, working with DoD, to update the joint VA-DoD Clinical
Practice Guideline
(CPG) for the Management of Opioid Therapy (OT) for Chronic Pain, which
has not been updated since 2010. In addition, to ensure prescribers
have the most up-to-date science, VA will be required to adopt the safe
opioid prescribing guidelines for chronic, non-cancer
pain in outpatient settings currently being developed by the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Expanded Access to Opioid Receptor Antagonists

Opioid receptor antagonists, such as
naloxone, are drugs that reverse the effects of opioids, including
respiratory depression, and, in certain cases, can prevent death.
Indeed, the VA’s year-old
Overdose Education and Naloxone Distribution (OEND) program, which
dispenses take-home naloxone kit prescriptions to at-risk veterans, has
been credited with saving 33 lives by reversing opioid overdoses.
Senator Baldwin included a provision to expand this
program, ensuring every VA medical facility is equipped with opioid
receptor antagonists, as well as to improve provider and pharmacist
education on overdose prevention strategies.

Joint Executive Council Working Group on Opioids and Pain Management

Senator
Baldwin authored a provision to create a new joint VA-DoD working group
to focus on patient pain management and opioid therapy. This working
group would be established within the
DoD-VA Joint Executive Council—an existing forum for senior leadership
at both Departments to develop policies and programs to address
overlapping priorities—and would cover, at minimum, opioid prescribing
practices, acute and chronic pain management, complementary
and integrated health, and the concurrent use of opioids and
prescription drugs for mental health issues, including benzodiazepines.
The working group would help combat the VA’s continued overreliance on
opioids for pain management; limit instances of VA providers
prescribing opioids for mental health treatment, which is non-compliant
with joint VA-DoD Clinical Practice Guidelines; and improve patient
care during the DoD-VA transition.

Enhancing VHA Opioid Safety Efforts

VA has had some success improving the
safe use of opioids to treat pain, including through the Opioid Safety
Initiative (OSI) and the use of the Opioid Therapy Risk Report tool.
However,
capability gaps exist in these initiatives, and more needs to be done.
To help reduce rates of opioid addiction and fatal overdose, it is
critical that real-time data is available at the individual prescriber
and pharmacist level as well as the pharmacy management
level to prevent inappropriate prescribing before it occurs.

Senator Baldwin included a provision
that directs the VA to develop and deploy mechanisms for including
real-time patient information on existing opioid prescriptions within
VHA as well as
patient controlled substances prescription information in the state
prescription drug monitoring programs. The mechanisms must also alert a
provider or pharmacist in real-time that an opioid or benzodiazepine
prescription would be inappropriate and protect
against “double-prescribing” when an in-patient continues to receive
take-home opioid prescriptions despite being treated with opioids at a
VA facility. The provision further directs VA to submit information on
controlled substances prescriptions to state
prescription drug monitoring programs.

GAO Audit of VA Opioid Therapy

According
to the CDC, in 2012, health care providers wrote 259 million
prescriptions for opioid pain relievers, which is enough for every
American adult to have a bottle of pills. This drastic
increase has also been seen in local VA facilities, including the Tomah
VAMC in Wisconsin. To strengthen oversight of VA opioid prescribing
practices, Senator Baldwin included a provision directing the Government
Accountability Office, in consultation with
the Department of Veterans Affairs, to report to Congress on the
effectiveness of the VA Opioid Safety Initiative and overall opioid
prescribing practices throughout the VA system. This report shall
include recommendations on improvements to the Opioid Safety
Initiative, deaths involving veterans prescribed opioids, overall
opioid prescription rates and indications at all VA facilities,
including facilities and prescribers that are among the top ten percent
in the nation regarding the percent of their patient
population receiving opioids and the average dose per patient. In
addition, the report shall note the use of benzodiazepines and opioid
concomitantly and their prescription rates and indications along with
facilities and prescribers that are among the top
ten percent in the nation regarding the percent of their patient
population receiving opioids and the average dose per patient.

VISN Pain Management Boards and Complementary and Integrative Health

To
further help reduce the inappropriate use of opioids and improve
treatment for chronic pain such as through the use of complementary and
integrative health, Senator Baldwin included a provision
that encourages the VA to establish a pain management board within each
Veterans Integrated Service Network (VISN) comprised of health care
professionals and—to give veterans a greater role in their care—veteran
patients and/or family members of a veteran
patient. The pain management boards would serve as a resource for the
region’s facilities, patients, and family members; provide best
practices recommendations for pain management to the VA facilities
within its region, including patient, family member and
medical perspectives; provide an annual report to the Secretary of
Veterans Affairs about pain management practices within its region,
which would then be sent to Congress.

GAO Report High Risk List

In
2015 GAO placed VHA on its annual High Risk List, identifying VHA
programs as high-risk due to their greater vulnerabilities to fraud,
waste, abuse, and mismanagement or the need for transformation
to address economy, efficiency, or effectiveness challenges.
Accordingly, Senator Baldwin included language to require the VA
Secretary to issue to Congress quarterly progress reports on Department
action to address GAO findings and recommendations.

Armed Forces Retirement Home (AFRH)

The
bill includes a provision authored by Senator Baldwin requiring the
AFRH to report on actions taken to implement recommendations made by the
Department of Defense Inspector General (DoD
IG) in a July 2014 report.

Here we are… racking
up debt, living paycheck-to-paycheck in propaganda-induced panic and
fear, while political candidates like Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton
are serving up our future to the war profiteers.
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Jim, Dona, Jess, Ty, "Ava" started out this site as five students enrolled in journalism in NY. Now? We're still students. We're in CA. Journalism? The majority scoffs at the notion.
From the start, at the very start, C.I. of The Common Ills has helped with the writing here. C.I.'s part of our core six/gang. (C.I. and Ava write the TV commentaries by themselves.) So that's the six of us. We also credit Dallas as our link locator, soundboard and much more. We try to remember to thank him each week (don't always remember to note it here) but we'll note him in this. So this is a site by the gang/core six: Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I. (of The Common Ills).